A pair of familiar names made good progress into the third round of the French Open on Wednesday.
Tenth seed David Goffin dropped a set to qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky, but managed to come through 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Goffin was a quarter-finalist at this tournament last year. His run last year included wins over Nicolas Almagro and Ernests Gulbis before losing to Dominic Thiem. Stakhovsky’s run through qualifying and the first round represents his best run of form for some time at this level.
Thiem himself was another early winner on Wednesday. The Austrian played a close first set with qualifier Simone Bolelli. He then stepped up a gear to win comfortably 7-5, 6-1, 6-3. Bolelli has done well to return from long-term injury, and his win in the first round, and through qualifying is testament to the progress that he has made in recent months.
Thiem is defending a lot of points this year. The sixth seed was a semi-finalist last year, where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
Thiem will face the winner of the match between twenty-fifth seed Steve Johnson of the United States, and Borna Coric of Croatia.
Goffin awaits the winner of the match between twenty-third seed Ivo Karlovic and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos.
